Abstract:
ABSTRACT
Street preaching/evangelism is one of the activities undertaken by Christians to
broadcast or spread the gospel. It is one of the forms of making disciples of all nations
and winning souls for Christ in accordance with the Great Commission of making
disciples if all nations (Matt. 28:18-20). In Ghana and some other parts of Africa, street
preaching is a common phenomenon. Arguably, street preachers have a larger audience
than “pulpit preaching” at the Sunday service. While Sunday service preaching is
mostly confined to the chapel and focuses on members of a particular church, street
preaching targets and reaches people of varied denominational and religious
backgrounds. Though a common practice, street preaching comes with a number of
theological, ethical and pastoral issues which need scholarly analysis. The purpose of
this paper is to critically assess street preaching from theological, ethical and pastoral
perspectives and to recommend ways in which potential pitfalls may be addressed. The
paper employed qualitative and historical-descriptive research designs to describe the
current state of the exercise and its impact on the soul-winning ministry and Christianity
in general. In addition to the data collected from the field through interviews and
participant observation, the paper used secondary sources such as books, journal articles
and dissertations. After a careful analysis of the subject matter the paper established
that even though street preaching is a legitimate and effective way of spreading the
gospel, it may contribute negatively to the qualitative growth of the church due to the
lack of proper theological/ministerial training of most of these preachers and the
resulting unbiblical and unethical practices that sometimes characterize this enterprise.
To avert the situation, the paper made recommendations for the nation (Ghana), church
and preachers to enhance the qualitative growth of the Christian community through
effective and biblically-sound preaching.
Keywords: Ghana, Evangelism, Street Preaching, Christians
